Our top IT tips for successful working during lockdown:
- Work from home if you can; it’s best for one and all right now.
- Servers may run as normal but back-ups still need to be ran and checked. If your back-up is by removable drive and you are not onsite at this time, we would recommend setting up an FTP backup to a remote location.
- Turn off Windows updates; during this remote working time, it is recommended to manually update the servers as you do not want to risk a server failing to reboot when you cannot access it directly.
- Remote sessions have a habit of being left open; you need to check on remote sessions and disconnect where idle or out of hours.
- Server maintenance: you may find with more people working remotely that services such as email and databases are using more resource. Make sure you keep maintenance on your server up to date with regularly restart services.
- Rebooting: if you have to reboot the server/client PCs remotely, make sure that you have a stable connection and be sure you select ‘Restart’, not ‘Shut down’.
- Firewalls are even more important when working remotely, as you have no control over the users’ internet connection. Make sure all firewalls are active and correctly configured.
- Anti-virus is also very important (no puns here, please!). As you will be working from home, your employees may be using their own equipment to connect, so it is vital that all office anti-virus software is up to date and where possible the users’ devices are protected and up to date as well.
- Multiple RDP connections can be tricky to manage… the simplest way is to use a different port for each PC connection and forward this through your router. This way, you do not have to configure each PC individually, just provide the I.P. and port to each user.
- Have regular breaks – genuinely. Staring at a screen or slouching in front of a laptop for long periods at a time will not aid productivity or morale presently; use as you would in an office – or, weather permitting, turn the garden into your new office!
Feel free to get in touch with the KAT team if you have any questions about the above, or anything else!
